Chairs suitable for the use by children have a continuing attraction and utility. If such a chair has the appearance and function of an adult chair, such as a rocker, it not only provides a place for the child to rest, but has added advantage of permitting movement and emulating adults. A child's high chair is of great convenience in feeding the child, and in providing a place for supervised activity without the necessity of stooping, or the need for providing a child's seat within an adult chair.
A convertible child's rocker and high chair gives the advantages of both of the former configurations, and is particularly useful if it also is an attractive piece of furniture that is compact and easily handled in use and transport.
There have been convertible rockers before, but their designs are less versatile and compact, and they are awkward in appearance. In the usual case, the rocker element pairs were separable to form legs to raise and support the seat of the chair that was rigidly connected to ends of the rockers. This arrangement limited the extension of the chair in height, and did not permit pivotal movement of the chair to allow a backward tilt to the chair seat to assist in keeping a child from sliding from the seat. Various locking arrangements have been employed in previous designs to maintain the convertible chair in its extended position. These locking arrangements usually consisted of separate latches or bar stops that were additional components for use after the chair had been raised, rather than being an integral part of a more versatile convertible chair design.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide an attractive convertible rocker and high chair capable of double extension from a lowered, or fully nested position, and having an easily operated and unobtrusive integrated control and locking design. It is also desirable to have a locking mechanism that not only secures the chair in either the up or down position, but also permits additional security for the chair occupant by providing a rearward tilt to the seat.